April 29 Events

OPCW Day (Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare)

The Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare is an annual event held on April 29 as a "tribute to the victims of chemical warfare, as well as to reaffirm the commitment of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to the elimination of the threat of chemical weapons, thereby promoting the goals of peace, security, and multilateralism." It is officially recognised by the United Nations (UN) and has been celebrated since 2005. On the 2013 observance day, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gave a speech where he stated: "On this Remembrance Day, I urge the international community to intensify efforts to rid the world of chemical weapons, along with all other weapons of mass destruction. Let us work together to bring all States under the Convention and promote its full implementation. This is how we can best honour past victims and liberate future generations from the threat of chemical weapons."

The Conference of the States Parties at its Tenth Session PDF (paragraph 23.3 of C-10/5, dated 11 November 2005) decided that a memorial Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare would be observed on 29 April each year — the date in 1997 on which the Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force.

The Conference of the States Parties of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (30 November – 4 December 2015, OPCW C-20/DEC.10):

1. Decides to designate 29 April each year—the date in 1997 on which the Convention entered into force—as the International Day for the Foundation of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (“OPCW Day”);

2. Decides that the Day of Remembrance for all victims of chemical warfare will be held on 30 November each year or, when appropriate, on the first day of the regular session of the Conference; and

Chemical Warfare

A lot of weapons

There are a lot of weapons that we’ve developed which we’ve pulled back from - biological weapons, chemical weapons, etc. This may be the case with armed autonomous robotics, where we ultimately pull back from them.

Designed to inflict pain and death on human beings

Land mines, torture equipment, cluster bombs, chemical weapons are weapons designed to inflict pain and death on human beings. Most victims are civilians, women and children. How can arms manufacturers, weapons designers, plant managers, politicians, who have families of their own whom they love, be so insensitive when it comes to the suffering of other human beings?

Policy of conventional weapons

Isn’t a policy of conventional weapons, with the terrible bombs raining down, with the missiles, with the aircraft, with the submarines, with the torpedoes, with the tanks, with chemical weapons - isn’t that based on the possibility of threat?

That scares everybody

The world is worth saving anyway

Maybe they’d use biological or chemical weapons instead. Maybe they’d crash the world economy. Maybe they’d turn every program on television into one of those reality shows." "That’s mostly done already, Harry." "Oh. Well. I’ve got to believe that the world is worth saving anyway.